This is a small detail of another painting in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. The painting, done sometime between 1610 and 1628, is a portrait of Maria Maddalena, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Archduchess of Austria. The duchess and her mother-in-law ruled Tuscany as co-regents for several years after the death of Cosimo II de Medici. In this detail I especially like the exquisite depiction of the lace bordering the handkerchief.
I’m going to return to museums for a few posts now. This is a small detail of a large painting by Cristoforo Monari (1667-1720) titled “Still-Life with Dog and Fruit.” Given the scale of various objects in the painting, I’m assuming these are some kind of crawfish rather than lobsters. (Someone more familiar with crustaceans will undoubtedly be able to set me right.) I must say, the one in the front looks rather fearsome. The work is in the collection of the University of Kansas’s Spencer Museum of Art.
Aspen trunks present so many interesting abstract patterns. These photos were taken of a single tree in Georgetown, Colorado. They’re not quite what I was hoping to capture, but I’ll keep working on it.
With the exception of various insects and one very loud flock of Canada geese passing overhead, that’s all I saw today at the Frank State Wildlife Area, a bit southeast of Fort Collins on the Cache la Poudre River trail. And I don’t have a photo of either. The spider was a spindly thing the color of a liver spot; the hawk was far away. (I actually saw the spider a second time, on the way back. It had moved just slightly on the trail. Perhaps it wasn’t feeling well.)
Concrete is not what I think of as a trail, but this little section drew a lot of cyclists and walkers today, when the temperature was in the upper seventies. My dogs and I walked for about an hour. We didn’t cover much territory—less than 2 miles—but we were all thirsty and hot long before we got back to the car.
Frank S.W.A. is made up of recently reclaimed gravel pits, and parts of the area have been closed as recently as late 2015 for mining. I could hear traffic noise from a nearby two-lane highway the whole way—except for moments when the wind picked up. I’m still looking for a place to go out here on the plains near Loveland that doesn’t feature lots of traffic noise, or a view of houses. It was a nice walk, though, and will be much nicer when the trees leaf out. These are iPhone photos, rendered a bit shakier than usual due to the wind.
I finally redesigned my photography website and it’s now live. Readers of this blog will find some photos that I’ve posted here, but also lots of older ones. These images were taken with a wide range of cameras. Some of the oldest were digitized from negatives; others were taken with a digital SLR, with a variety of point-and-shoots, with my new 4/3 Olympus, and with my iPhone. I hope you enjoy the website! Feedback is heartily invited.
Northern Boulder County
Arapahoe Ski Basin at sunset
Loveland Pass at sunset
Recently I realized that I’ve been negligent about posting photographs of the Colorado landscape since I moved to Loveland. Here are three recent ones. The first was taken with my iPhone; the other two, with my new Olympus.
Rhyncholaeliocattleya
Phaiocalanthe Kryptonite “Ursula”
Cymbidium Tom Thumb “Calliope”
Phalaenopsis Carolina Tiny Phil
Phragmipedium Jason Fischer
Taken at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s 2017 orchid show. I’ve probably written this before, but anyone interested in orchids should read “The Orchid Thief,” by Susan Orlean. It’s fascinating. It’s also the book that the movie “Adaptation” was loosely based upon.
These photos were taken at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s 2017 orchid show. I’ve carried various cameras to four or five of these shows, but this is the first time I felt pleased with more than a small handful of shots. It’s also the first time I was patient enough to photograph the identification labels, so I now can actually name what I took. Just call me a slow learner.
Paphiopedilum Black Thorpe. This is the orchid whose sexual organs were featured in yesterday’s post.
Cattleya Los Gatos
Bulbophyllum cumingii
Phalaenopsis Hampshire Clouds
Aliceara Purple Passion
Paphiopedilum Black Thorpe
Flowers are pure sex out in the open, and that’s especially true of orchids, which are exquisitely adapted for pollination. The sheer sexuality of orchids has been commented upon so often that it is a cliché—but it’s a beautiful one. This is the first time I’ve taken a photograph that amounts to flower pornography. I’ll show the entire flower, along with a number of other orchid species, in my next post. Olympus OM-D EM10 II, 30 mm macro.
Taken at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s 2017 orchid show. Olympus OM-D EM10 II with 30 mm macro lens (60 equivalent). I recently acquired this 4:3 mirror-less camera (which somehow stands up under the burden of that absurd series of letters and numbers), and so far I absolutely love it. It’s lightweight and small, which is a boon for my tendinitis-weakened wrists, but it seems to perform as well as my Pentax K-50. Best of all, you can shoot just by touching the LCD screen where you want the sharpest focus to be. No, Olympus didn’t pay me to praise this camera. What a shame! Next up: Orchids! Lots of ’em.
VAPOR AND FLOW 